Firefly Ale – The Dog(fish Head) Days of Summer

[Author’s Note: August is the Dog(fish Head) days of Summer here at The Dogs of Beer. All throughout the month I’ll be looking exclusively at the beers from DFH.]

Back in June 2012, Red Frog Events announced that Dover, Delaware was going to be the location for what would hopefully become the next amazing multi-day music festival, Firefly. An estimated 30,000 people came out on July 20–22, 2012 for the inaugural event, catch acts that ranged from well know artists to indie favorites on one of the four festival stages. During the last two years the event has brought in the likes of Jake White, The Wallflowers, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, The Black Keys, The Flaming Lips, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Public Enemy, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Deciding that the festival should have it’s own beer organizers approached DFH and asked if they’d do the honors. DFH gladly accepted. The result was Firefly ale, a 5% ABV English-style pale ale, which although brewed specifically for the festival, does make appearances on draft at surrounding bars. In fact, the first year that Firefly was held, it was starting to spring up at craft beer bars a few days before the festival, which at the time I though stole a little bit of the “mystique” away from it.

After just missing it at another location, I was finally able to get a growler at Kreston’s opening day Dogfish Head growler take over. In a growler signed by Sam no less. Let’s taste.

THEM: Firefly is styled as an English pale ale brewed with Marris Otter barley. English heritage and Calypso hops are used for flavor and bitter. Firefly is fermented to 5% ABV, and balanced out with 25 IBUs.

ME: To me this is a very reaffirming beer. Everyone now a days equates DFH with all those “wacky” beers they make, that it’s easy to forget that they can produce a pretty damn good, straight forward beer. Interestingly however, the more I drink it the more it comes of a little “pilsnery” if I may be allowed to totally create a word, which is odd because the ingredients pretty much say pale ale. It’s only a notch or two darker than golden in my glass, with a nice stream of bubbles rising up from the bottom. The nose is ample without being overpowering with notes of biscuit, light hops and touches of fruit. The flavor is more of the same, nice malt with a finish that’s clean, not overly bitter, with a slightly sticky aftertaste.

Although it didn’t scream ALE at me as much as I thought it should, I really enjoyed this beer. It’s definitely brewed with the thought of hot day imbibing which may be why the beer comes off to me the way it does. Still, this is a rock solid beer.

Rating – Growler. I’d say six-pack, but DFH doesn’t package Firefly (also the reason I haven’t mentioned the price). So if you want it, chances are you’ll have to wait until next summer.